The left-wing B'Tselem organization has blamed Israel for water shortages in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, charging that the government discriminates in favor of Jews. "The chronic water shortage results in large part from Israel's discriminatory policy in distributing the joint water resources in the West Bank, and the limits it places on the Palestinian Authority's ability to drill new wells," it said.
Israeli water authorities have said that four years of a shortfall in precipitation have depleted most of the underground aquifer sources. They also have reported hundreds of incidents of thefts of water by Arabs in Judea and Samaria.